Lt. General Hamad Mohammed Thani Al Rumaithi (photo), Chief-of- Staff of the UAE Armed Forces, on Monday, visited The Armed Forces Exhibition for Diversity of Requirements & Capabilities - AFED 2018 taking place at Riyadh International Convention and Exhibition Centre from 25 February through 03 March 2018.
The UAE Commander toured stands of Saudi, Arab and international exhibitors, according to Emirates News Agency WAM.
The Saudi Ministry of Defense is organizing AFED 2018 to display the requirements of the participants, as well as capabilities of local and international factories and research centers.
A number of Ministers and officials of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, officials of Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition (IMCTC), and a number of officials in brotherly and friendly countries will attend the seven-day exhibition.
In its fourth session, AFED 2018 aims to present manufacturing opportunities of materials and spare parts offered by exhibitors, to open channels between the exhibitors and local factories and to enable Saudi factories, laboratories, and specialized research centers in the field of manufacturing the opportunity to contribute to the local manufacturing process.
AFED 2018 supports and develops national industry, in line with the required global standards and quality specifications, contributes to the localization, transfer and development of the supplementary materials by networking with international companies.
The exhibition consists of five main sections including beneficiaries' requirement, government institutions, national companies, international companies, and outdoor section.
It includes activities to be held on the sidelines of the exhibition which are seminars, lectures, worksheets and workshops for localization of the industry and support of local content that aims to create a communication environment between government agencies (beneficiaries) and national companies and factories according to the Kingdom Vision 2030, and to introduce the obstacles and challenges that hinder the procedures of localization of the industry in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and come up with appropriate solutions and procedures that contribute to the use of local content.
Turkey is the guest of honor for AFED 2018 and aims to provide the opportunity for the Turkish industrial companies to present their products and requirements and to establish partnership with their Saudi counterparts to contribute to the transfer and localization of technology, and benefit from manufacturing opportunities to meet the needs of locally manufactured raw materials and spare parts, in addition to the participation of speakers on a high level from the Turkish side in the seminars, lectures and workshops.
